


Lent Lily

by nightfullofstars



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: F/F, Hanahaki Disease, One-Sided Attraction, Unrequited Love, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 11:51:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7639117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightfullofstars/pseuds/nightfullofstars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not Yuma that the flowers remind her of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lent Lily

**Author's Note:**

> Hanaki Byou; A disease of the human system that coughs up flowers due to severe one-sided love. Its infection route is through contact with vomited flowers. In order to fully recover the disease, the one's love must be fulfilled.

Kotori has always thought flowers to be a lovely thing. Whether they were delicate flowers with thin and long petals or cuter little blossoms that bloom in bunches, Kotori has always found them charming. Flowers are beautiful, flowers are pretty...

Flowers are like Rio.

It's Rio she thinks of now, eyes wide as she takes in the single saliva-drenched petal pinched carefully between her fingertips. It's the petal of a daffodil, and Kotori idly remembers bringing Rio the same flower months ago, back when everything with the Ruin Numbers and the Barians and all else was going on.

On the other hand, she can't imagine why she'd end up spitting out such a petal -- did she end up eating one without knowing it or something? Was it a prank of Yuma's? Pinning it on her childhood friend's impishness seems to be the most logical conclusion, so she settles on that and pushes any such recollection of choking up the petal of a daffodil to the back of her mind.

☆☆☆

Rio holds her hand, and Kotori barely manages to excuse herself before toppling into the bathroom, a small and varied handful of more saliva soaked petals bursting from her lips. Feebly, her shaking fingers rest against her throat, amber gaze unable to tear away from the assorted petals floating about in the toilet bowl.

This isn't anything she's ever heard of.

Kotori's mind races as she tries to place any Numbers card that could have this effect on people, but understandably there's not a single thing that comes to mind. The days of Numbers (and by extension, the days with Astral) are long over after all. Now there's no mind-controlled duellists or ancient warriors led astray, only homework and laughter and Rio, sweet and beautiful Rio --

She thinks of Rio's smile, her soft and patient smile, and another surge of petals comes forth. One such petal -- another daffodil, she realizes, heart sinking -- is slightly tainted with blood, and she hastily flushes the toilet before she has to think anymore on it.

When she reunites with Rio just outside the mall's bathroom, Kotori attempts to ignore the way her stomach churns as she struggles to return the friendly smile gracing the taller girl's lovely lips.

☆☆☆

It's Cathy who finds her curled in the girl's bathroom weeks later, lips stained with blood and a few stray petals that didn't manage to reach the toilet bowl scattered about her. Kotori feels her slender hand against the small of her back, and in a moment of weakness she leans her head against the other girl's shoulder, frustrated tears running down her face.

"I-I don't understand," Kotori manages, hiccuping slightly as she reaches to wipe the smears of red from her lips. "Am...Am I a monster?"

Cathy shakes her head, and Kotori stares at her wide-eyed as the taller girl tells her of a disease, of unrequited love, of bloodstained flower petals. Cathy sighs, burying her nose into Kotori's hair and drinking in the smell of her floral shampoo.

"I'm sorry, Kotori. I... I was sure he liked you back all along."

But when Kotori looks to the toilet bowl and spots a blood-soaked daffodil petal, it's not Yuma who comes to mind.

☆☆☆

"It hurts, doesn't it?"

Durbe's eyes look so hollow.

"I'm sorry you have to go through this as well."

 _As well_ , Kotori thinks, hoping that she won't ever have to lose the light in her eyes as Durbe has.

☆☆☆

Flowers are like Rio.

The thought hits her hard one day, her head pounding as she topples into the bathroom once more. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. It feels like thorns are scraping against her throat, curling around and clenching her lungs, it feels like hell --

From the corner of her eye she makes out the petal of a daffodil before she vaguely makes out Rio's voice, concerned and panicky in a way she's never heard before, and then everything is black.

**Author's Note:**

> damn emi back at it with the abrupt/ambiguous endings
> 
> feedback/comments/kudos are always appreciated!!ヽ（´ー｀）


End file.
